Paul

I have decided to respond to, “tweets” sent to Richard Dawkins with the hashtag #Imanatheistbecause.

Without further ado, let’s jump straight in with this one:

I became an atheist when I was told at church that it doesn’t what you do if you aren’t Christian you go to hell @RichardDawkins#Imanatheistbecause.

Well, this one’s a fairly straight forward one to respond to.

There are two possible reasons why this person has come to this conclusion.

The leaders at this person’s Church were incompetent and taught a fundamentally flawed doctrine of salvation.

This person has drastically misunderstood the doctrine of salvation.

Just so we’re all on the same page, here’s what the bible has to say about it.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

So, because of the fall, the cost of mankind’s shortcomings before God is death. We all die! This verse refers to a little more than just physical death of course.

Let me use an illustration (I’m not the greatest of artists!) to show what I’m getting at here:

So we are one side of this huge chasm that separates us from God.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)

I’ve added my own emphasis there because, ‘all’ is the key to this. There is no one on earth better than anyone else. We all come short of God’s standards.

It says a little later, in revelation:

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:15)

Basically, you get your name in the book of life when you realise the following:

That is you up there in that picture! You are separated from God by a huge gaping chasm of sin. But, don’t worry, we’re all in that position, you’re not alone!

God has come up with a way for us to be reconciled to him, through Christ

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18)

Accept this gift from God…… this is the easy bit, it’s a free gift (the best we’ll ever receive)

That’s it, your names down on the list….

So you see… Despite wether this is a misinterpretation on the tweeter’s part, the Church who taught him about it or whatever, the point was lost in translation.

It isn’t a message of: If you’re not a christian you will burn in hell, that is such a warped interpretation.

The truth is much more elegant and beautiful. God loves us, always has, always will; we overlooked that in favour of self gratification. We rejected God. God says, that’s cool, if you want that then you can have that for eternity. However, if you want to regain that original relationship, you can do it simply by receiving the gift of Christ on the cross.

I’ve done it again haven’t I?

I picked out a simple one at the start with the hope of having time and space for a few tweets and responses but, i’ve gone off on one!

Consider this a bonus, it means you will get loads more posts! You lucky so and so’s…